Mentoring for Neurofeedback Certification

The process of mentoring involves a relationship between a mentor and candidate that promotes the development of skills, knowledge, responsibility, and ethical standards in the practice of neurofeedback. Mentoring can begin when the candidate can demonstrate some basic competence with equipment and is only the time spent reviewing the actual work as outlined by BCIA. Primarily working on equipment issues or technical support is not mentoring and should not be included.

Mentoring Guidelines
BCIA has adopted Mentoring Guidelines to provide a framework for this process. These guidelines include contact hours to be spent with a mentor to review personal training, case conference presentations, and patient/client sessions. Both the mentor and the BCIA candidate should be familiar with these guidelines.

Mentoring involves the completion of 25 contact hours, 2 of those hours must be face-to-face. Each session is to be a minimum of 20 minutes. The contact hours are used to review:

10 sessions of personal neurofeedback training sessions showing that the candidate can self-regulate using neurofeedback

100 patient/client sessions where the candidate is attaching the electrodes and running the neurofeedback session

10 case study presentations - these cases may be additional clients of the candidate it they were not completed cases previously discussed with your mentor and or those cases brought to you by your mentor as a specific learning experience. BCIA now offers mentoring webinars that, upon live participation or reviewing the recording and the completion of the evaluation and exam process, will award 1 contact hour and 2 case study presentations. Please be sure to pick only those designated as "Neurofeedback Mentoring". We recommend that these webinars not be taken all at once at the beginning of your training, but rather take place over the full mentoring timeline so that you will gain the most benefit from these presentations. This is a great way to learn from the best and expand your knowledge!

Essential Skills Listis to be usedas a way to test your knowledge. This document must be completed and submitted to BCIA by your mentor.

How Do I Start?Locating a mentor who is a good match for your career goals is very important. You may use more than one mentor, keeping good records to ensure that you are logging the experience accurately in terms of contact hours used to review the personal training sessions, patient/client sessions, and case conferences. If you filed your certification application prior to the completion of the mentoring requirement, your mentor(s) may use this statement to document the work.

Mentoring can begin when the candidate can demonstrate some basic competence with equipment and is only the time spent reviewing the actual work as outlined by BCIA. Primarily working on equipment issues or technical support is not mentoring and should not be included. BCIA does not stipulate when this mentoring can begin and in fact one may have completed the process prior to applying for certification.

Remember - if you are unlicensed and have no equipment, it may actually be that you are requesting an internship which is very different than merely learning the application of practical skills inside your own work place environment.

Mentoring may be done using various distance methods where you communicate and review training sessions electronically. Remember if you are unlicensed and do not have access to equipment and clients, you may find this a more difficult process. You will be truly asking a BCN mentor to use their equipment and their clients. Be prepared to ask a prospective mentor specifically what you need.

Client Confidentiality
BCIA encourages clinicians to maintain HIPPA compliant communication methods for all electronic communications. This would include communications with mentors, colleagues, other professionals and insurance companies. Such compliance would include, but not be limited to, use of coded numbers in place of names, using initials, altered birth dates, blacking out identifying information, or other means of making patient identification impossible. BCIA encourages individuals to check with their employer, risk manager, or the HIPPA regulations to make certain they are in compliance.

Non-BCIA Certified Mentors

To be eligible to serve as a mentor, a person must be BCIA certified and in active clinical practice a minimum of two years. In some cases, a candidate may wish to receive clinical training for mentoring from a person who is not yet BCIA certified. A Non-Certified Mentor Application assesses the education and training of a professional’s credentials to examine if he/she qualifies as a mentor. The application must be filed with a $100 review fee and the approval is for only one applicant.